University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust (UHS) and NantHealth today announced a strategic partnership with the aim of delivering and transforming cancer services using the most advanced molecular genomic and proteomic diagnostics, treatment decision support and unique IT integration capabilities for better informed precision treatment selection and care coordination.

“As an accredited NHS Genomic Medicine Centre, this partnership with NantHealth will allow us to take an important next step in the use of molecular medicine for the benefit of our cancer patients across the Wessex region”

Under the three-year programme, NantHealth will enable UHS to rapidly transport raw data from the sequencing machines to NantHealth’s UK based supercomputing infrastructure through the NantTransporter, and access NantHealth’s automated NantOmics Analytics Platform (NantContraster) for genomics sequencing interpretation and annotation. In addition, NantHealth will generate rapid and timely clinical reporting to support personalised treatment decision making for cancer patients, based on evidence-based outcomes among patients with a similar genetic signature.

With this partnership UHS will integrate advanced genomic and proteomic capabilities into its existing laboratory and with their agreement engage cancer patients to provide genome samples for sequencing. The enormous volumes of data generated will be quickly processed via NantHealth’s hyper secure UK data centre. It will then utilise comprehensive clinical data to identify potential clinical trial participants for recruitment into targeted trials.

Using NantHealth’s intelligent clinical operating system (cOS), the organisations will work to incorporate NantHealth’s technology platforms to capture relevant cancer clinical and outcomes data from the Trust. This strategic collaboration will help identify future patients suitable for clinical trials at the earliest possible stage and will record outcomes delivered as a result of therapy decisions that are made, in this era of targeted therapy and immuno-oncology. By converging molecular science, computer science and real world big data infrastructure capabilities, the cOS platform will empower providers, patients and commissioners to coordinate the best possible care, monitor outcomes and control cost in real-time.

UHS will join a growing number of leading organisations converging as part of a global network of care providers, commissioners and employers supporting the Omics Network, a collaboration to forge a new area of cancer care discovery and enhance the science of care delivery for the benefit of everyone.

“As an accredited NHS Genomic Medicine Centre, this partnership with NantHealth will allow us to take an important next step in the use of molecular medicine for the benefit of our cancer patients across the Wessex region,” said Fiona Dalton, chief executive officer at University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust (UHS). “We are proud to be amongst the first organisations not just in the UK but globally to deliver precision diagnostics alongside guided cancer decision support to deliver integrated care delivery solutions. We believe this will facilitate an elevated standard-of-care for our patients and will enable UHS to be at the forefront of specialist cancer services and clinical science in the UK.”

“We are excited at the prospect of working closely with University Hospital Southampton, and together taking from ‘bench to bedside’ the use of whole genome sequencing and proteomics for the benefit of cancer patients in the UK,” said Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, founder and CEO of NantHealth. “Our advanced technologies will enable the processing of ‘Real World Big Data,’ in the timely workflow of genomic medicine, and at last allow the promise of science to reach the hands of treating clinicians in time of need. The shared goal of UHS and NantHealth is to modernise and drastically improve the delivery of effective cancer care, in this evolutionary era of targeted and immunotherapy.”